The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The Hamilton Fountain -- Riverside Drive and 76th Street

Robert Ray Hamilton came from one of New York City’s most
esteemed families.His father was the
highly-lauded Civil War and Mexican War veteran General Schuyler Hamilton; his
grandfather was the historian and attorney John Church Hamilton; and his great-grandfather
was Alexander Hamilton.

Robert Ray Hamilton -- The New York Times August 30, 1889 (copyright expired)

An attorney, Robert had attended both Columbia College and
Columbia Law School.In 1881 he was
elected to the New York State Assembly and remained in office until 1889.Like the rest of his respected family
members, he led an untainted life—until his last year in politics.

Hamilton had begun an affair with
Evangeline L. Steele in 1886.Unbeknownst
to him, as The Sun later said, she had led “a disreputable life.”What he also did not know was that she was
already married, to “Josh” Mann.Popularly
known as Eva, she recognized the financial opportunity the affair presented and
she laid plans to ensnare her lover.

In December 1888 Eva and Josh traveled to Elmira, New
York.The Evening World later reported “They
decided that Eva should get a baby, and make Mr. Hamilton believe it was
his.If they succeeded they knew he would
not suffer the little innocent to go through life unnamed.”On December 17 they paid $10 for an unwanted
newborn.

Hamilton believed the child was his; but Eva’s demands that
he marry her were temporarily halted when the baby became ill and died.The death certificate listed the child’s name
as “Alice Mann, daughter of George and Alice Mann,” and stated the cause of
death was “want of breast milk.”Eva, who
had never been pregnant, was unable to nurse the infant and it died of starvation.

Before the baby was buried, according to court testimony
later, a replacement baby was purchased (also for $10).Josh Mann’s mother, “Grandmother” Anna
Swinton, moved in with the couple to ensure this one would not die.

“Hamilton knew nothing of the death of the first one, and
yielding to the persistence of Eva he married her in Paterson, N. J. on the 7th
of January last,” explained The Evening World.In February Hamilton took an apartment in the Marshall Flats on West 15th
Street.Joshua Mann rented a flat on the
same street and when Hamilton was not around, he and Eva lived together as man
and wife.And she provided him with large
sums of Hamilton’s money to live on.

Because Hamilton was still serving in the Assembly, he was
often out of town.The New-York Tribune
reported “Before she married Hamilton, he agreed to give her $6,000 a year for
pin money and to defray her expenses at home.”A quarrel over that allowance brought an end to the marriage and to
Hamilton’s reputation.

On August 26, 1889 the couple was summering in Atlantic
City.Eight months earlier, just after
Hamilton learned of the baby, he had hired a nurse, Mary Anne Donnelly, to
care for the child.Donnelly traveled
with the family, accompanying them to California earlier that year.

But that morning, after Evangeline repeatedly pressed
Hamilton that they should live permanently in Manhattan; he told her that he
would reduce her allowance if they did.“Quick-tempered
and passionate, she began to quarrel with him and threatened to leave him
forever,” said the New-York Tribune a few days later. Hamilton refused to budge on the subject.

At one point Mary Anne Donnelly tried to intervene, but she
was told to leave the room.Eva did not
like the nurse and already had instructed her husband to fire her.She demanded that Mary Anne leave the
cottage. When she was unable to move
her husband, Eva turned to the whiskey bottle.

At 11:30 a. m. the nurse returned.Now Eva upbraided her for leaving the child alone, they argued, and Eva
fired Mary Anne Donnelly.Within earshot
of Hamilton the nurse took her last shot, denouncing Eva “as a faithless woman.”

A physical confrontation followed, during which Mary Anne
proved to be a better street fighter than Eva.“Mary was as strong as a bull and had the fight lasted much longer Mrs.
Hamilton would have been beaten insensible,” reported the Tribune.Hearing the battle, Hamilton rushed into the
room just in time to see Eva thrust a knife into the heart of the nurse.In trying to break up the fight he was cut in
two places.Mary ran
from the room and died on the parlor sofa.

Astonishingly, Evangeline blamed the death on Hamilton.As she was taken away she said “You know I
told you before I left New-York that if you did not discharge that nurse there
would be murder committed.”

The scandalous details of the affair came out during the
trial.Newspaper readers nationwide
learned of the purchased baby, the other husband, and the plot to get Hamilton
to leave his fortune to the baby Beatrice.His lawyer described him as “outraged and indignant.When he remembers all he sacrificed for that
woman he can hardly restrain himself.”

Eager to escape the scandal, Robert Ray Hamilton went into
partnership with John Dudley Sargent, a stage coach driver in the Rocky Mountains who
proposed establishing a tourist resort in Yellowstone Park.Hamilton funded the plan and Sargent acted as
the “experience.”They built a luxurious
hotel and lodge on Jackson’s Lake in June 1890.

Three months later Hamilton was dead.He was found drowned in the Snake River under
suspicious circumstances.He was quickly
buried and when investigators from New York later disinterred his body, it was
found forced into a too-small wooden crate.The Sun reported on October 15, 1891, “Strangers found his body, and
those who could not appreciate his worth knocked a few rough boards together
for a coffin, wrapped the body in a dirty and ragged tarpaulin, loaded it into
the box, and so without a tear or a prayer dumped it into a hole on a desolate hillside…A
loyal friend, a true gentleman, and a brave man was Robert Ray Hamilton, but
hundreds of dogs have been more decently interred by their master than was he by
the friends to whom he was loyal.”

Sargent was arrested for his murder, but was later sent to
an insane asylum.

Hamilton’s will included the clause “I direct my executors…to
expend the sum of ten thousand dollars in the purchase and erection of an
ornamental fountain which I give and bequeath to…New York City, provided that
such fountain may be erected in one of the streets, squares or public places in
said city.”

Scandal and controversy would follow Hamilton even in his
death.His generous bequest was fought
by the family.On April 22, 1891 The New
York Times ran the headline “Let Him Be Forgotten,” and explained that the
Hamilton and Schuyler families petitioned the City to ignore his wishes.“Such a memorial as the will designates
would, they believe, perpetuate a name that brought dishonor to the family.”

The battle would last for years.In the meantime Evangeline Mann had been
released from prison.She had received a
settlement of $10,000 from Hamilton’s will.But she died penniless on November 23, 1904 in St. Vincent’s
Hospital.The Evening World reported
that “the body was buried in the common plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery, there
being but one mourner present.”

The Park Board accepted the design for the fountain,
submitted by architects Warren & Wetmore, on December 30, 1903.Two months earlier it had approved the
location—on Riverside Drive at 76th Street.The architects’ baroque fountain featured a
spread-winged eagle above a coat of arms and a shell-shaped basin fed by a
dolphin.Water from the basin spilled
into a large pool.The entire Tennessee
marble fountain formed part of the stone wall separating the Drive from
Riverside Park.Along the rim of the
pool was the inscription “Bequeathed to the people of New York by Robert Ray
Hamilton"

Far beneath the fountain, at the base of the wall on the
Park side, was a marble bowl that served as a horse trough for thirsty, passing
carriage horses.In reporting on the
installation of the Hamilton Fountain, newspapers said it was “for man and
beasts.”

The marble horse fountain, seen here in 1935, was the "beast" portion. It was eventually covered by feet of dirt and debris. photo Alajos Schuszler/New York City Parks Photo Archive

By the second half of the 20th century the horse
trough in the park was buried by accumulated soil—a total of 10 to 12 feet deep
by the new century.With the parkside marble
bowl long forgotten, the “man and beast” comment resulted in the lavish
ornamental fountain on the Drive being termed a “horse trough;” a reputation it
still carries.In fact, Hamilton’s will
does not mention the "ornamental fountain" being used by horses, and its positioning makes
that improbable.Carriage drivers would
have to direct their horses onto the sidewalk to take a drink.

Throughout the 20th century the marble fountain
suffered vandalism and neglect.The
eagle’s beak was smashed off and the inscription was eroded to nearly illegibility.Riverside Drive residents did their best,
planting flowers in the no longer functioning basin.

Then in 2008 the Riverside Park Fund and a small maintenance
endowment initiated a $150,000 restoration.The eagle’s beak was replaced, the stone restored, and the plumbing
repaired.And in November an
archeological dig of sorts was undertaken to find the old marble horse
trough.It was successful.Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, on
December 1, “the basin might be excavated and reused elsewhere, perhaps as a
dog fountain” or “perhaps it will be amply documented and then simply left in
place.That will allow another parks
commissioner in another era to find it again.”

In the meantime, the stunning marble fountain continues to
be deemed a horse trough--an ironic similarity to the memory and reputation of
its donor.

2 comments:

I grew up in a neighborhood that had a working horse trough. It was located in front of the Church of the Immaculate Conception on 14th Street near First Avenue. If I remember correctly it was made of granite and had running water. There was even a tradesman who still employed a horse and wagon who would stop for a drink at the trough. I don't know his trade but we kids called him the Junkman. This was the late 50's early 60's.

There is a hotel on the north side of West 79th Street between West End Ave and Riverside Dr which had a horse trough in the lobby until recently. There appeared to originally have been an open circular drive that later had a ceiling/roof installed above it. Flowers has been planted in the trough when I saw it a few years ago before the lobby was "upgraded".